Field
The preset disclosure relates to a printer performing desired printing on a print-receiving medium.
Description of the Related Art
A printer is known that performs desired printing on a print-receiving medium and that has a so-called auto power-off function. In the prior art, when a predetermined reference time has elapsed in an operation stop state, the printer is switched to a supply shutoff state of power source voltage so as to save energy (=auto power-off).
In general, if a printer of this type has some sort of error event (e.g., insufficient voltage of a battery or overheating of a printing head) occurring in association with the operation mechanisms during a printing process, the printing process is interrupted. Therefore, for example, in such a case that an operator goes away from the vicinity of the printer to another place after a printing process is started, the operations of all the operation mechanisms are stopped due to the interruption for a relatively long time. As a result, if the auto power-off function as in the prior art is equipped, the operator coming back to the vicinity of the printer performs a return operation for returning to a normal power supply state (because the printer is in the supply shutoff state of the power source voltage); however, since the operator dose not notice the occurrence of the error event causing the auto power-off in this case, the error event may occur again when the printing process is resumed after the returning.
The same problem exists also if the operation stop state is switched to a low power consumption state (so-called sleep) instead of the supply shutoff state of the power source voltage (auto power-off) when a predetermined reference time has elapsed.